The school<\/a> is also home to more than 25 centers and institutes. Its alumni have gone on to success in state, national, and international industries and employers, even counting two prominent NASA astronauts (Franklin Chang-Diaz ’73 and Rick Mastracchio ’82) among its graduates.<\/p>\nToday, the UConn School of Engineering has more than 3,600 undergraduates, 900 graduate students, more than 600 students enrolled in professional education programs through the new Center for Advanced Engineering Education, and more than $68 million in total research expenditures in the last full fiscal year.<\/p>\n
It also has 147 tenured and tenure-track faculty \u2013 including President Radenka Maric – and 35 teaching faculty, 61 deanery and academic staff members, and 29 research support employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposal is a significant step forward for our institution and holds great promise for the future of our engineering programs. The UConn School of Engineering has been a cornerstone of academic excellence, consistently delivering high-quality education, groundbreaking research, and impactful community and industry engagement,\u201d Kazem Kazerounian, the school\u2019s dean, wrote to D\u2019Alleva in a letter of support for the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, as higher education evolves, and the diversity and size of our programs increase, it has become clear that this transition is timely and essential for our continued growth and success,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He also noted that elevating the school to a college offers internal and external advantages, including enhancing its visibility among peer institutions, streamlining operations, encouraging specialization, and promoting excellence within the programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also provides the flexibility needed to support future growth and innovation in education, research, and community engagement,\u201d Kazerounian wrote. \u201cIt aligns with the aspirations of our faculty and sets the stage for our school’s continued growth and success.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school has its roots in UConn\u2019s earliest days, with its programs spanning more than a century and being offered under every iteration of the institution from the Storrs Agricultural School to the Connecticut Agricultural College, Connecticut State College, and University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n
The first classes in mechanical arts and agricultural mechanics had already been in place when the institution launched a two-year program in mechanical arts in 1901. Five years later, the program was expanded to a four-year degree-granting program in mechanical engineering.<\/p>\n
In 1920, the Division of Mechanical Engineering moved into its own building on the Storrs campus and graduated its first engineering student. In 1935, its programs expanded to include civil, electrical and mechanical engineering offered within the Division of Engineering.<\/p>\n
Its second dedicated engineering building \u2013 now known interchangeably as Engineering I and the Francis L. Castleman Building \u2013 was completed in 1939, and the School of Engineering was formally established in 1940 with separate departments in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The decision will enhance UConn Engineering\u2019s external profile, streamline operations internally, and allow for future growth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":205147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2275,1866,2235,2225,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1932],"class_list":["post-205131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-affairs","category-engr","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 17:27:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205131"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205223,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205131\/revisions\/205223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/205147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205131"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=205131"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=205131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}